The Road We Travel
by SarCuppCake
Summary: After the loss of the farm the group tries to find a new place to make a life for themselves. What could possibly be in store for Clara and Daryl now? Sequel to Kindred Spirits.
1. Chapter 1: A New Day

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier.**

**Author's Note: This story is the sequel to Kindred Spirits so if you haven't already please go back and read it else you will be pretty lost in the goings on of this story. **

This story will begin within a few days of the events of Kindred Spirits. There will be new characters introduced and much like it's for runner this story will follow cannon to some degree but will also have very original themes as well.

I'd also like to thank everyone who supported Kindred Spirits you all are awesome and I hope that you continue to support Clara and Daryl.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

**Chapter 1: A New Day**

It was hard to believe that almost a week had passed since they had lost the farm. It had been a week of driving in circles, of avoiding herds of walkers. Then finally they managed to push their way through one of the herds and was able to make a straight shot to the small town of Williams, Georgia to Covington University was located. After what all they'd seen on the drive down they were afraid of what they were going to find in the small town. For once it seemed like luck was definitely on their side, the herd hadn't penetrated this far south or rather they hadn't yet.

Clara had her arms wrapped tightly around Daryl's waist; her chin was resting on his shoulder. She couldn't deny the mixed emotions that she felt as she watched the Greek-Revival style buildings rising over the town. This place had once been her safe haven, her refuge from Ed and the nightmares that happened in her home. She thought she'd never see this place again and seeing it in its rundown state was enough to break her heart just a little.

Daryl slowed the motorcycle down and brought it to a stop at the foot of the hill. While there hadn't been many walkers in the town they had no idea what they were going to find at the school. While Dale, T-Dog, and Hershel stood point everyone else gathered around the hood of the old Suburban where Glenn brought out the map that he and Clara had spent hours working on. "So what's our move? Rick asked looking at Clara.

"Me?" Clara asked in surprise.

Rick nodded, "You brought this to us, you lived here for two years you know the lay of it better than we do."

She shook her head, "This is Glenn's area of expertise."

Daryl ran his hand down her arm, "You got this." He said looking down at her.

Clara studied the map for a few seconds before taking a deep breath, "Okay this is the original part of the campus. There's the clock tower which will be a good vantage point for watch duty, the dining hall, and the original residence hall. This part used to be fenced in with an iron gate. It's still there, the gate might need some repair but we'd be able to close the ground off. There's only one road going in here too. The residence hall, it was built in the late 1800s, it's where I lived when I went to school here. There are fireplaces in all the dorms, they're boarded up now but I don't think it would take much to clear them."

Rick nodded, "Alright today our focus is clearing the grounds inside of the fence. We get that secure then we move on to the buildings."

Lori looked at her husband, "Rick we can't stay on the ground another night. Carl's already starting to get congested."

"Mom." The boy protested, "I'm fine." Of course his 'fine' was ended with a round of coughs.

"It's a small building, it housed about seventy girls." Clara said. "Like I said back at the farm it had mostly been evacuated."

"We don't know if anyone holed up in it since then though." Rick said.

"You know I ain't one to oppose but I have to agree with Lori." Daryl said. "We'll all end up sick if we spend another night on the ground. That ain't good for nobody."

"Let's get this done before we burn anymore daylight." Rick said.

Once they were sure of what they were doing, everyone loaded back in the cars and drove up the hill. Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and T-Dog armed themselves with their silent weapons and went into the small courtyard. Clara couldn't help but feel scared when she and Maggie closed the iron gate behind them. Maggie looked over at her friend the look in her eyes matching Clara's. "They're going to be fine." Clara said. It was as much for her own benefit than her own.

"I know." Maggie said putting her hand on Clara's which was still holding onto the gate just incase it needed to be pulled open.

They were both lost in the carnage in front of them. They hadn't heard the people approach behind them. "What do we have here?" a familiar male voice sounded. "Hands in the air and turn around slowly."

Slowly Clara and Maggie turned around keeping their hands up. In all of her wildest dreams, Clara never dreamed that she would ever see the man who was holding a gun on them ever again.


	2. Chapter 2: Reunions

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier. **

**Author's Note: **Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Reunions **

Clara's mouth dropped opened when she saw the man holding the gun. "Whitie?" she asked.

"Whitie?" Maggie asked looking over at Clara and then back to the man holding the gun. He was in his early twenties and had a flawless mocha complexion. He was on the lean side but it was clear that he was all muscle. What threw Maggie off the most was not the fact that this black man went by the name Whitie but was the fact that over his corn rolls he wore a Rebel flag bandana.

"Clarabelle?" the man asked before grabbing Clara up in a hug and spinning her around.

"You two know each other?" Maggie asked with a confused look on her face.

"Yes, that's Terrance 'Whitie' Manson. He's the whitest black man you'll ever meet. He's probably even a bigger redneck than Daryl." Clara said then turned back to her friend, "Now get that goddamn thing out of our faces."

"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you under all that dirt and freak sludge." He said lowering the gun. "What the hell are you doing back here?"

"Whitie as much fun as reunions will be we have something we're doing." Clara said turning back to the fence and watched as Daryl, Rick, Glenn, and T-Dog cut down the walkers. Over the last week they'd gotten really good at taking them out quickly and efficiently.

"So you gonna tell me what happened after you left here?" Whitie asked.

"It's a long story," Clara looked over at him and then back to the men. She watched as Daryl took down the last walker with his bowie knife. "Let's just say that life on the road isn't easy. I lost my mom and Sophia."

"That bastard?" he asked.

"Dead." Clara said. She didn't elaborate she didn't need to, while her friends had never know the detailed horrors that Ed had put his daughter through they had eyes. They knew that life with that bastard had been hell for her.

"Good." Whitie said as Rick, Daryl, T-Dog, and Glenn approached the fence.

"Who the hell is this?" Daryl raised his chin taking the man in.

"An old friend." Clara said opening the gate. "Daryl his is Whitie, he was probably the first friend I had here."

"I thought you said this place was evacuated." Daryl drapped is arm around Clara's shoulder possessively, his crossbow in his hand hanging by his leg.

"Not everyone has family to go to." Whitie said.

"Is our being here going to create a problem?" Rick asked.

"If Clarabelle says you're alright you're alright." Whitie shrugged.

"How many are you?" Rick asked.

"Me personally, well I'm just one man. Everyone always said that one Whitie was enough to go around." He shrugged.

"Just answer the damn question." Daryl snapped. He hated more than anything to be jerked around.

"Daryl, please." Clara looked up at him.

"You need to take a pill cowboy." Whitie grinned.

Clara sighed, "Whitie, how many in your group."

"There's just a handful of us left there was a group of freaks came through about a month ago. The assholes that you all took down are left from them. There was about fifty of them. It's just me, Kevin, Marissa, and Sadie left." Whitie said. "They're out on a supply run right now. It's just me here."

Clara couldn't believe the relief she felt when she learned that her friends were still alive. "They're alright?" Clara asked.

"You know who he's talking about?" Rick asked.

Before Clara had a chance to answer, Daryl did for her. "One was her roommate the other two she grew up with."

"We're living in the Jefferson Campus Center." Whitie said, "Nobody felt right living in the dorms after…" he didn't finish.

Rick ran his hand over his face and nodded, the last thing he expected was to find people, especially people that knew Clara. He wanted to be leery, he wanted to take his group and move on but he didn't have much of a choice. The days were growing colder and being jerked around on the move all the time sure as shit wasn't good for Lori and the baby. They needed a place to hole up and bunker down and this was the right place to do that. "We'll take that building, we won't be trouble."

"Didn't spect you would be." Whitie said.

"Everything fine up here?" Dale asked coming up behind the group his rifle over his shoulder along with Beth, Hershel, Lori, and Carl who'd been hiding in the Suburban behind one of the buildings.

"It's fine," Clara assured them. "This is Whitie he's a good friend of mine."

* * *

After introductions were made and they made sure the residence hall was cleared everyone began the long haul of bringing in their gear. One thing they'd learned after what had gone down on the farm was that they needed to make sure the big stuff was left in the cars, like their tents and sleeping bags and some food. They never knew when they were going to need to run again.

For Clara being back in this building was strange and full of ghosts. It was almost like being at summer camp the day after everyone had left. What was once full of laughter and life was now empty and desolate. While some of the rooms had been stripped of all of the personal belongings there were some that hadn't been. Clara took a deep breath and made her way up the winding staircase to the second floor before finding room 316. She paused before pushing the door opened, other than being covered in several months' worth of dust it was exactly the way she'd left it. Her bed was unmade the pastel patch work quilt haphazardly tossed back and her night gown and bathrobe tossed over the bottom. She couldn't help but remember the girl who she'd been when she lived here. She was totally different than the woman she was now. "So this is where you lived?" Daryl asked walking up behind her and resting his hand on her shoulder.

Clara nodded as she looked at the nightstand where there were framed snap shots of her and Sadie and Marissa. There was another of her and Sophia from the Halloween the year before. "Yeah it's actually the same as when I left it."

"You know…we can stay in a different room." He said pulling her into his arms.

"I'm okay Daryl." She said leaning against him.

"It would be okay if you weren't." he said cupping her chin before kissing her softly.

* * *

**AN: Just wanted to get you all's opinion on something. I've been playing around with an Alternate Universe story involving Daryl and Clara meeting Pre-Zombie Apocalypse. I still haven't decided if I'm going to post it yet if you all are interested let me know. **


	3. Chapter 3: Into the Woods

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it. **To icebabesfire**: Glad you finally caught up with us and are enjoying the story. As to the reference to 'Rhage' in previous comments he's actually an orginal fiction character that a friend of mine writes whom I adore. I've never read the Black Dagger Brotherhood series. **To BrokenWing-FallenButterfly**: Glad that I've been able to entrance you to the point that you set up until four in the morning reading**. To FanFicGirl10:** Whitie is definitely an interesting character, he's based after a kid I went to high school with who was indeed the whitest black person I've ever met. I hope that you're able to start to like him. He's actually someone that I've planned on bringing into the story since the first time going to the University was mentioned.** To GatorGirl99:** Bringing Ed back from the dead would be a hell of a twist. I'm almost sad that I hadn't thought of it myself. Of course I have no idea how I would be able to make that happen, he was after all mostly devoured by the She-Walkers.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Into the Woods**

Once they were safely inside of the residence hall and everyone settled in, Clara did the one thing that came naturally. She finally gave into the exhaustion she'd been feeling for the past week finally consume her. While she no longer felt as safe as she once had at the farm there was something oddly comforting about being back inside of her old room surrounded by relics of the person she'd once been. It wasn't long before sleep over took her. She slept deeply for what seemed like days, when she woke up it was completely dark outside except for the silvery light shining into the window from the moon. When she heard the clattering of feet running up the stairs and the dorm room door flung opened it was almost easy to forget the past several months had happened. "Oh my God Clara!" Marissa exclaimed as she launched onto the beds that Daryl had pushed together for them early that day. "Oh my God I thought that I would never see you again! I didn't believe Whitie when he said that you were still alive." The girl sobbed as she hugged Clara almost to the point of cracking her ribs.

"I'm okay promise." Clara too was crying with joy.

"Jesus Christ, Ris the let the girl come up for air." Sadie said in her thick Texan accent.

"Sorry." Marissa grinned sheepishly as she pulled back and wiped her eyes.

As soon as the redhead moved out of the way, Sadie too pounced Clara, "Ooof!" Clara grunted. "I'm happy to see you both too."

"We thought you were dead!" Sadie scolded as she and Marissa positioned themselves on the bed. It was clear that they were all in need of having a long talk and trade war stories. While in reality it had been a few months since they'd last seen each other it felt like a lifetime. "How could you leave with them?" she scolded.

Clara knew that her best friends suspected what had gone on behind the closed doors of the Peletier house hold, they never voiced their suspensions to their friend. They were afraid that it would only push her away. "I had my reasons." Clara said then took a deep breath. "I knew Mama was lying when she said that Ed had changed. With everything going on I was scared and I was afraid of what he would do to Sophia. Of course in the end that didn't matter." Tears filled Clara's blue eyes, "Mama and Sophia are both gone."

"Whitie told us." Marissa said she too was crying. She'd known Sophia since she'd been a baby and to be honest the girl was just as much like her own younger sister. "They're better off though, than being in all this."

"I know." Clara said wiping her eyes. "So how did you all get back here?"

"Well Kevin and I started back to Marietta but we didn't make it very far. The traffic trying to get into Atlanta had been a nightmare we just turned around." Marissa said. "We figured we'd be better off trying our luck here."

"Couldn't get a flight to Texas." Sadie shrugged, "They shut down the airports when the disease started to spread."

Daryl walked into the room and sighed when he saw the women, "I thought I told you to let her sleep." He half-heartedly scolded them. "She ain't slept in days."

Sadie gave Daryl a saucy look, "Well then you ain't doin' your job right." She said causing Clara to blush.

"Sadie!" Marissa tried to stifle the fit of giggles that were escaping from her throat against her will. They didn't know this guy from Bob the Walker but it was clear he was someone very important to her best friend. The last thing she wanted was to piss him off, she wanted him to like them, and she knew that Clara's group was only planning to stay there through the winter. She didn't want to lose her best friend again.

Daryl set the plate he'd been carrying for Clara down on the nightstand along with the bottle of water. "Ain't had no complaints so far." Daryl smirked at the mouthy Texan before turning to Clara. "Me and Rick are going on watch with your boys Kevin and Whitie, trying to get the lay of the land and such."

Clara nodded, "Be careful." She said before kissing him softly.

"Love you." Daryl said low enough that only she heard him.

Clara nodded, "Love you too." She whispered back.

Daryl started to go out the door but before he did he turned to the two new women, "Make sure she eats that." He said slinging his crossbow over his shoulder. "She ain't been eatin' enough to keep a damn bird alive."

"We will." Marissa assured him.

Daryl nodded to the women before leaving the room the door closing behind him.

When they were sure that the surly redneck was out of hearing range they turned back to Clara, "Okay spill the beans girl." Sadie said. "It's been forever since I've spent any fleshy time with anyone but Bob."

Marissa made a face, "Ew Sadie, did you have to say that?"

"Hey you might be a prude but I sure as shit ain't, I have needs and if you were honest with yourself you'd admit that you too masturbate it's perfectly healthy." Sadie said.

"Daryl's…" Clara blushed again, "He's Daryl…I can't talk about it it's just way too personal."

"There is nothing wrong with that." Marissa wrapped her arm around Clara's shoulder. "As long as he treats you the way you deserve that's all that matters."

"He's amazing." Clara said. "I'd probably be dead a few times over if it hadn't been for him."

"So how did you meet up with him?" Marissa asked, "I bet Old Ed shit kittens."

"It's not exactly how it happened." Clara said.

~Flashback~

_Something bad was going to happen, it was a fact that Clara knew. It wasn't because against her better judgment she'd allowed her mother to convince her to leave the safety of the small university that she called home. It was because they were sitting in the parking lot that was once the highway leading into Atlanta. It was that everyone around them was terrified and they really had no idea what was going on. They only knew what they'd seen on TV that the dead was getting up and walking, attacking people. They had no idea what was causing it all they had been told was they needed to go to the refugee center in Atlanta. Once they got there they would be safe, there would be food and medicine and it wouldn't be long before all this blew over and they would be back in their nice cushy air conditioned houses. _

_Clara was sitting on the hood of her mother's Cherokee with her little sister and Carl a boy Sophia had made friends with while her mother and the boy's mother chatted. It never failed to amaze Clara how easily her mother was able to turn a horrible situation like a highway parking lot into a garden party. But that was just Carol's nature; Ed on the other hand was sitting in the front seat of the car chain smoking while he listened to the emergency broadcast. He'd been doing it since they arrived outside of the city. He'd never been overly friendly to strangers the way his wife had been and because of that when they were alone he'd make sure to punish her for what she was doing. _

"_Mom I'm hungry." Clara heard the little boy say._

"_It's okay I'm sure that they're gonna start letting people in." the boy's mother, Lori said. _

_It was then that Carol made the ultimate mistake, "You know Ed is into all this survival stuff. We have enough MREs to feed an army." _

_Lori nodded as she patted her boy's shoulder, "We'd sure be grateful."_

_Clara knew that if Ed heard his wife offer a complete stranger the food there would be hell to pay. Not wanting to draw attention to them Clara pulled the ear buds from her ears, "You know Dad mentioned that he forgot to bring them." She said. "He was just so worried about getting out of town and all." She opened the door to the back seat of the car and pulled her back pack out. There were a few snack sized bags of chips and granola bars that she had tucked down into her bag that morning. "Here this is what I have." She said passing the meager amount of food out. _

"_Thank you." Lori said. _

_Clara nodded, "No problem." _

_Clara wasn't sure exactly how much time elapsed between the small meal they'd shared and when the emergency broad cast stopped. It seemed like an eternity but it was probably no longer than an hour between the two. "Do you mind watching Carl?" Lori asked Clara._

"_No sure." Clara said tucking her ipod into her pocket._

"_Mom I want to go with you." Carl said._

"_I'll be right back." Lori assured the boy then looked at Clara, "Thank you." _

_Clara watched as Lori and her husband and her mom and dad took off down the road. Something was going on and nothing good would come of it. "I'm sure your mom and dad will be right back." Clara said._

"_Shane's not my dad." The boy said and then his eyes filled with sadness. "My dad was shot, he's dead."_

"_I'm sorry." Clara said. _

"_Is he your dad's boyfriend?" Sophia asked._

"_No Shane was my dad's partner; they were deputy sheriffs in King County." Carl explained, "There was a shootout and it ended bad. He died yesterday, was in a coma. Shane went to get him before we left but it was too late." _

"_I bet your dad was a good guy." Clara said, she had no idea what to say to someone in this situation. She knew that this little boy would do anything to see his father one more time and she would give anything if hers just dropped dead._

_They talked back and forth for a little while, about what they had been doing before the world had gone to hell. Clara told them silly college stories hoping to keep them occupied. Then it happened, in the distance they could hear the sound of bombs going off. "What was that?" Sophia asked turning to look at the city skyline. _

"_I don't know." Clara said. What she saw next was enough to scare the shit out of her; the military was dropping napalm on the city. It was then that madness ensued on the people on the freeway began to riot. "Okay listen to me we have to get into the woods alright?" she said to the kids. "Don't take anything we need to run." Without saying anything else Clara grabbed the kids' hand and ran with them into the woods. _

_Once they were far enough away from the highway she stopped so they could catch their breath. "It's gonna be okay," she promised looking down at Sophia and Carl. "We just need to find a place to hide for a while."_

"_What's happening?" Carl asked._

"_When people get scared they panic and sometimes they hurt other people, they don't mean to but they can't help it." She said. _

"_Why?" Sophia asked her blue eyes big with fear, "Why would someone want to hurt someone else?"_

_Clara knew that there was more to that question than meets the eye and this was no place to talk about it. "I don't know." She said truthfully. "We need to run again are you ready?" _

_Sophia nodded but Carl didn't say anything. Instead he just stood there his face totally white with fear his body trembling. Slowly Clara turned around and saw what had the boy shell shocked. Standing about twenty yards from them was one of those things. It was only then that Clara realized she had no weapon, no idea how to hurt it if she could. "Come on." She said taking off running towards a tree with a low branch, "start climbing." She said to the children. _

_It was then that Carl snapped out of his semi shocked state. He grabbed Sophia by the hand and practically dragged her towards the tree and helped her climb up it. Once the kids were safe, Clara picked up a rock and threw it at the walker getting his attention before she started running as fast as she could. It was times like this that she was glad that she'd been a medalist on her high school cross country team. Problem was she'd been out of high school for almost three years and she hadn't kept up with the training and like many college students developed an addictive coffee habit. It was when she thought that she wasn't going to be able to run any longer that something unexpected happened. She slammed into someone knocking them to the ground. Her first thought was that she ran into another one of those dead things and started to fight back._

"_I ain't gonna hurt you good lord woman!" a gruff country voice bit out. Before she had a chance to say anything he shoved her off of him and raised the crossbow he'd been holding and pulled the trigger. The thing that had been chasing Clara took the bolt to the head and collapsed to the ground. Clara's eyes went wide she turned to look at the man, "Don't you dare faint." _

"_O-okay." Clara said her voice shaking. "It was…I thought I was…"_

"_Yeah well it didn't and you didn't." he said sitting up and raking his hand through his hair then looked over at Clara. "World's gone to shit and I get stuck with hysterical females." _

"_I'm Clara…Peletier…not hysterical scared shitless maybe." She said holding her hand out._

_The man gave her hard look before taking her hand. "Daryl Dixon."_

~End Flashback~

"The next morning once we were all back to the highway Shane got everyone organized and we ended up camping outside of the city near a rock quarry." Clara finished. "The people whose with us are all that's left of that group and a few that we've picked up along the way. There used to be a lot more of us."

"Wow." Marissa said after a few seconds. "Leave it to Clara to find a sexy hunter in the middle of the woods."

"She has all the luck." Sadie agreed.

"Daryl is…he's like me." She shrugged, "We understand each other, I never thought I would ever meet someone who I felt that way about."

"So tell us the truth…" Marissa said, "It was Daryl that killed Ed wasn't it."

Clara couldn't help but smile as she shook her head, "No but he wanted to. He never had any delusions about him. Not long after we all got the camp set up he caught Ed doing some stuff." She sighed then looked at her friends, "I went down to the creek to bathe one morning and he followed me. I didn't even know he was there but Daryl saw almost killed Ed. Shane he was the leader at the time ripped Daryl a new one for it saying that he had no right to get into our family affairs. A few days later Shane almost killed Ed for laying his hands on mama. Then that night our camp was attacked and Ed was eaten by some She-Walkers."

"Karma…is a real bitch." Sadie said.

"An appropriate one in this case I believe." Marissa said.

"Oh hell yeah." Clara agreed with a laugh.


	4. Chapter 4: Settling In

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it**. To Dalonega Noquisi, FanFicGirl10, and Leyshla Gisel:** After deciding to take the group to the school Clara went to pre-ZA, I figured there would be a chance that some of the people she knew did stay behind. In doing the flashbacks in Kindred Spirits where Marissa, Sadie, and Kevin were mentioned the characters started to develop in my mind. With as many people as we have lost in the show I felt like we needed a little new blood. I think it's easier to integrate them into the group because they do have a past connection with Clara were as the men in the prison are virtual strangers they don't know what to expect from them. **To Feathersblue17:** I've always felt that in writing fanfiction it's good to stray from the norm. I mean we know what happened in the TV series and the graphic novels. When I watch something or read a book the whole time in my head going well things could have gone differently if it would have happened this way and what have you. One of my favorite writers is Margret Mitchell, and I've read Gone with the Wind so many times I can't even count. I always loved the fact that even though it was a story about the Civil War you were more engrossed with what was going on with Scarlett and Melanie. I try to write these stories in way where you never forget that it's a zombie apocalypse, but that's in the background. The characters and their struggles are what matters. It's like Clara told Maggie, she's trying to *live* in the zombie apocalypse, not just survive it.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Settling In**

It was well past 2 a.m. when Daryl walked into the room he was sharing with Clara. He half expected to find Marissa and Sadie still there and the three women braiding each other's hair or whatever else it was that females seemed to do. Instead he found Clara, once more curled up in the middle of the bed. He quietly pressed the door shut. He knew that she was still on edge and the slightest noise would probably wake her. He set his crossbow on the floor propping it against the wall before tossing his leather vest over the back of a chair. As he set down on the edge of the bed his eye caught the plate on the nightstand, he couldn't help but grin when he saw it almost that it was almost empty. The stress of running like they had been had really started to wear on Clara her appetite had plummeted, she hadn't been eating much and there were times when she did eat that she didn't hold much of it down. It scared the shit out of Daryl, while food was lean that didn't mean they were all starving. None of them could afford to be weak from hunger cause when that happened mistakes were made. He refused to lose Clara, not when he just found her. "Daryl?" Clara asked sleepily as she set up.

"It's me darlin'." He whispered as he chucked his shirt and pants off before sliding into the bed behind her pulling her into his arms.

"Everything okay on watch?" she asked snuggling against him and tucking her head under his chin.

"Pretty calm out there, a few walkers nothing like we've been seeing north of here." He said running his fingertips down her arm as he pressed a kiss to her shoulder.

"Is it safe here?" she asked.

Daryl paused for a minute, he didn't want to be the asshole who said 'well everything is good unless something bad happens', he knew that the moment those words were uttered that something bad would happen. "It can be." He said. "Just as long was take precautions, there's a lot of work we need to do before winter really starts to set in. We gotta get those windows boarded up down stairs fortify that fence."

"I just want to hold still for a while you know. I know that nothing will ever be like it was at the farm but I remember how it was when we first met up. It was scary and it seemed like all we did was run." She said her eyes wet with tears.

Daryl rolled her over and cupped her chin firmly in his hand, "You listen to me I ain't never gonna let anything happen to you." He said. "I'll do everything I can to make sure you're safe and happy even if that means dragging those friends of yours away from this place when the time comes."

Clara couldn't help but smile a little as she looked up at him her blue eyes locking with his, "I'm holding you to that." She said before kissing him softly.

* * *

After spending the week on the run when morning rolled around everyone was up with the sun. There was much that needed to be done before anyone could relax, not that they could ever truly relax again. After dressing, Clara made her way downstairs, seeing as how they hadn't made sure the dining hall was clear breakfast consisted of cold beans and skillet cornbread made over the camp fire the day before. The thought of the beans turned Clara's stomach and so she gave her share to Carl and nibbled on some corn bread much to the distain of Daryl, "You need to eat somethin'." He said to her.

"I will at lunch, I just can't do cold beans again." She said.

Daryl nodded, "We're heading out gonna start scavenging."

"Hershel is low on medical supplies we want to be ready just in case." Clara said, "Marissa, Sadie, Kevin, Whitie, and I are going to check out the infirmary and the science wing see what we can come up with. Marissa was premed so she knows the lay of the buildings really well."

Daryl nodded he pulled his Beretta out, checked the clip before tucking it into the waist of Clara's jeans. "Don't think twice 'bout using that neither." He said before pulling her to him and kissing her.

"Promise," she said kissing him back.

After saying her goodbyes to Daryl Clara headed back up to their room. If they were going into a place where walkers were potential she wanted to be prepared. She pulled the door to the closet, she was grateful for the fact that her things were pretty much the way she left them. She grabbed her navy blue hoodie and pulled it on zipping the front almost up to her chin. She was surprised when she saw the acoustic guitar sitting in the back of the closet. She took a deep breath and reached her hand forward brushing her fingertips over the strings. "Sadie won't let anyone touch anything in here." Kevin said from the door.

Clara smiled when she saw her old friend before hugging him tightly. "I missed you guys so much."

"We missed you too." Kevin said hugging her back. "Looks like you've done alright for yourself though. Interesting group you have."

Clara smiled as she pulled back, "They're good people, we've been through the ringer though."

Kevin nodded raking his hand through his messy brown hair, "Is it better knowing or not knowing?" he asked. He knew that Clara would know what he meant.

"Knowing," she said walking over to the mirror and braiding her hair before she started to twist it back into a thick bun. "The whole time Sophia was missing there was always this part of me that hoped she'd still be alive and then there was this other part of me that knew she was a walker. When she came out of that barn and she was one of them…I've never felt like that before in my life. I was horrified and at the same time there was this part of me that was at peace because I knew that she was better off."

Kevin nodded he didn't get a chance to say anything when Beth came into the room. She gave the boy a shy smile before turning her attention to Clara. "Can I talk to you for a minute Clara?" Beth asked.

Kevin gave Beth his brightest smile, "We'll be waiting on you."

"Everything okay?" she asked as Kevin shut the door.

Beth sighed, "I was looking through the closet in the room. Well there are clothes in there and they're my side, I just would it be wrong to wear them?"

Clara smiled at the girl, "I think it would be wrong if you didn't. Remember one of our reasons for coming here was to get clothes for the winter."

"Right." Beth said before hugging Clara and leaving the room.

After Clara had finished getting ready she headed downstairs where the others were waiting. "Are we ready?" she asked.

"We are." Whitie said adjusting his Rebel Flag bandana.

"You lot be careful." Hershel said clapping his hand on Clara's shoulder. In the past few weeks since her mother's death he'd felt responsible for her, like she was one of his own.

"We will." She assured the older man as she covered his hand with her own. "Did you give Marissa the list of things to look out for?"

"Got it right here." Marissa said holding it up. "Anything we can't find we can hit the pharmacy downtown."

"One thing at a time," Hershel said.


	5. Chapter 5: The Days of Our Apocalypse

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it.** To Dalonega Noquisi:** There is a one hundred percent chance that your theory may or may not be somewhat entirely correct. **To bashfyl and Feathersblue17:** I am so sorry that the last chapter was too short. I was trying to be a good person and give you all a little something last night. I had to be a work at 6 this morning. I will do my best to try to make it up to you both. **To FanFicGirl10, loveorpain, piratejessieswaby, and Leyshla Gisel:** Thank you all so much for your reviews.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Days of Our Apocalypse Life**

The infirmary was a small one story house that was behind the science building. It had been donated to campus board in the late 1980s. Prior to the world going to shit it had been a cute little white house. It was built during the Great Depression and the small yard that encircled it had been neatly tended with seasonal flowers planted along the walk way and in front of the wide porch. It was so different on scale and grandeur that the only way one knew that it was even part of the campus was the sign in the garden with the school's crest on it. Now the yard was over grown the sign posts of the sign had wild vines that wrapped around the posts. The sight of it in such disrepair was enough to make Clara sad. "Has nobody raided this?" she asked as she started to open the door only to find it locked.

"Not that we know of," Kevin said. "Should we break a window?"

"No the noise would draw walkers we don't want the attention on us." Clara said. "Hair pin?"

Whitie rolled his eyes, "You have seen too many movies Clarabelle." He stuffed his hand in his pocket and pulled out a large set of keys.

"How did you find those?" Marissa asked. There were times like these that Whitie never failed to amaze her.

"Last night Clara's boy Daryl broke into the security office. There were three sets, he and Rick took two gave me these." Whitie said as he unlocked the door and quietly pushed it opened.

Clara pulled her gun out and quietly followed Whitie into the house, nobody made as sound as they slowly went through all of the rooms making sure that it was clear of walkers or any other unexpected, uninvited guests. Once they were sure they were sure that it was safe, White and Kevin went outside one of them took point at the front the other at the back. They wanted to be sure that they weren't taken by surprise.

Marissa was like a kid in a candy store when they started going through the supply room. "This place is a goldmine." She said as she started going through the bottles of pills. "I mean it's basic stuff: antibiotics, cold medicine, mild pain killers. We'll need to make that pharmacy run for the stronger stuff."

"We'll need to get with Glenn and Maggie for that." Clara said. "Glenn is a god when it comes to that kinda supply run."

"He's the Asian kid right?" Sadie asked.

Clara nodded, "Before all this went down he was a pizza delivery boy, he's fast on his feet. Rick calls him our 'go to town expert.'"

"Rick's the sheriff with the boy and the wife." Marissa said.

"Yeah he's our leader he's got us out of some pretty sticky situations." Clara said as she started stuffing bandages in her bag.

"He and his wife they seem…tense." Marissa said.

"They've had a rough time." Clara shrugged she went on to tell them about what happened in Atlanta. How Shane had barely gotten out of Atlanta with Lori and Carl and how he'd believed that Rick was dead. How one day the scavenge team had gone into Atlanta for supplies and came back with Rick. How Lori and Shane had been sleeping together and that Lori was now pregnant and didn't know who the baby's father was.

"These are the Days of Our Apocalypse." Sadie said. "So what happened to Shane, he's no with the group is he?"

Clara shook her head, "No he's….he didn't take well to this kind of living. He didn't give Rick a choice."

Marissa frowned, "Damn."

With that being said they all went back to clearing the supply room. Once they were done they started on the exam room. Marissa opened up one of the cabinets and giggled, "Heads up." She said to Clara before tossing her box.

Clara caught the box and then looked at it. She couldn't help the blush that spread across her cheeks when she saw the box of condoms. "Seriously?" she laughed.

"Hey you're the one who brought the Soap Opera to town, I'm just trying to help you out." Marissa grinned mischievously.

Clara shook her head and tossed them back, "Thanks but um…they won't work." Her face turned redder.

Marissa frowned as she looked at the box, "What do you mean they won't work." She checked the date on them. "They're still in date, and I'm thinking we should be playing it safe as long as we can."

Clara closed her eyes she wanted to get out of this conversation as quickly and as painlessly as she could, "It's not that. There's nothing wrong with them…it's just that…well Daryl he's-"

Marissa cut her off, "Don't tell me he's one of those picky guys right?"

"No!" Clara's face was burning from embarrassment. "He has to have special ones is all."

"Special ones, you mean Daryl's penis rides the short bus?" Marissa asked.

Clara burned her face in her hands, "No!"

"Marissa I think you're the one who needs to ride the short bus." Sadie wrapped her arm Clara, "What the girl is trying to say is that Daryl happens to be very well hung."

"I hate you both!" Clara said before retreating into the other room causing both Marissa and Sadie to burst out laughing.

"Clara that is nothing to be ashamed of," Marissa said between laughs as they followed her. "Now you have been using protection though right?"

Clara sighed, "Do we have to do this?"

"I am just looking out for you." Marissa said. "A baby right now isn't exactly ideal, look at your friend Lori."

Clara shook her head, "No."

* * *

While Clara and her friends were raiding the infirmary; Daryl, Rick and Glenn took the old blue Ford out to check out the small hardware store that Whitie and Kevin had told them about the night before. "How come I always have to ride bitch?" Glenn asked. He was grumpily seated between Daryl and Rick with gearshift between his knees.

Daryl smirked, he looked a Glenn than over at Rick who was driving. He knew the Sheriff was thinking the same thing he was. "Nah…not gonna say it…it's too easy." Daryl said.

Glenn sighed, "Cute….really cute Daryl."

"Don't worry Glenn; we're just going down the street." Rick said.

"Just watch your hand when you put it into fifth." Glenn said.

Rick stopped the truck at the end of the street the hardware store was on. Roaming aimlessly in the road was four walkers. As soon as they heard the truck's engine the walkers slowly looked up the noise drawing their attention. "Let's get this done." Daryl said climbing out of the truck and grabbing his crossbow from the bed.

"Silent weapons only we don't know how many more assholes like these are around." Rick said pulling his machete out.

Daryl nodded as he aimed crossbow and took one of the walkers out, his zombie buddies were completely distracted by the prospect of new food to even notice him dropping. While Daryl reloaded his crossbow Rick and Glenn took two the two closest to them down with ease. Before the fourth had a chance to grab Rick or Glenn Daryl took it down with his bow. "You know…we need to figure out how to build you a pump action crossbow." Glenn said out of breath while Daryl pulled his arrows out of the walkers' heads.

"Is that possible?" Rick asked.

Glenn shrugged, "Well the Uruk-Hai used them in Lord of the Rings."

Daryl raised an eyebrow at Glenn, "Did you just nerd us?"

Glenn sighed, "It's something that might be doable. Apparently some German developed them in the 1600s or something."

"And you know this because?" Rick asked.

"Lord of the Rings: Extended Cut special features." Glenn said, before Daryl had a chance to take a gab at him he added quickly, "And I'm not ashamed of it either."

Rick laughed, "Well if you can come up with a prototype we'll see what we can do."

Daryl nodded, "Sounds like a plan."

They made their way into the store picking off the walker that was inside. Once they were done they started going through the stock room. "So what are your thoughts on Clara's people?" Rick asked Daryl.

"I don't think we're going to have to worry about them." Daryl said. "Clara she's been…she hasn't the same since we lost the farm."

Rick nodded, "I don't think any of us have."

"She had emotional attachment that we didn't have. I mean losing Sophia and Carol there it affected us all but for Clara she lost what was left of her family there then had to leave them behind." Daryl said. "I think finding her friends still alive; it's done her some good."

Rick nodded, "I think they can be an asset to the group. The red haired girl, Marissa she was a premed, she'll be able to help Hershel out."

"With the loss at the farm we need the extra manpower too." Glenn said.

"Still not sure about Whitie though." Daryl said shaking his head causing Glenn and Rick to laugh.

* * *

It was close to noon when Clara and her friends made it back to the residence hall their back packs loaded down with medical supplies. Hershel, Dale, Maggie, and T-Dog were in the process of dragging the walkers out of the dining hall they'd just finish clearing. "Looks like we missed out on some fun," Whitie said.

"Trust me there was nothing fun about this." Dale said wiping the sweat from his brow on the back of his hand before going back in the dining hall.

"Dale puts high value on life." Clara explained. "He's our conscience, him and Hershel. They keep us in check."

"Someone has to do it," T-Dog said throwing another body on the pile.

"So how did it go at the infirm?" Hershel asked.

"We're flush." Marissa said. "Nothing heavy antibiotics, cold meds, mild painkillers, bandages."

"All things we're in need of." Hershel said.

"We found some useful stuff in the science building as well." Kevin said. "We boxed it up but we'll need help moving it."

"Chemicals?" T-Dog asked.

"My boy Kevin is mad scientist." Whitie said clamping his hand on Kevin's shoulder.

"Just thought it might be a good idea if we made a few cocktails is all." Kevin said.

T-Dog grinned, "I like the way you think."

"Why don't you give the bags of medical supplies to Dad and Marissa? We got these bodies cleared we need to check the pantry see what we have to work with." Maggie suggested.

Clara nodded as she handed her back pack to Marissa. "Alright, I'm starving."

Maggie, Clara, and Sadie were amazed when they walked into the pantry. There was row after row of nonperishable food. "Wow." Clara said as she started reading the labels on the cans.

"We should have enough food to last us through the winter." Maggie said.

"How come you all didn't-" Clara asked but before she could finish Sadie cut her off.

"We tried, there were more walkers in here than what we could handle. We lost Gavin and Derick." Sadie explained. "It was during the early days there were more walkers around here then."

Clara nodded, while she'd never really been all that close to either man learning how they went down was still enough to cause a pain in her chest. "I'm sorry."

"Who were they?" Maggie asked.

"Gavin was my boyfriend." Sadie said, "Derick was his younger brother."

Maggie frowned, "That must have been tough."

Sadie nodded, "Everything is tough now you just have to learn to be tougher."

"I say we load up some of his food and go be heros." Maggie said trying to lighten the mood.

"I meant to ask, where are Lori, Carl, and Beth?" Clara asked as they started pulling cans from the shelves.

"They are making the residence hall livable." Maggie explained.

"Good." Clara said then gasped when she saw a glass jar on one of the shelves, "Oh my God…maraschino cherries!" she squealed with delight. "Okay there is no waiting I have to have these now."

Maggie couldn't help but laugh as she watched Clara pop the jar opened and fish one of the cherries out of the jar. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone get so excited over cherries."

"I haven't had these in forever." Clara said her mouth full. "Want some?" she held the jar out.

Sadie raised an eyebrow as she watched Clara dig cherry after cherry from the jar. "I still haven't gotten over my 21st birthday that cherry that had been pickled in coconut rum in my Bahama Mama."

Clara laughed, "Oh God the faces you made." As she put the lid back on the cherries, "Okay I'm good I'll save the rest for later."

"Come on lets go." Maggie grinned.


	6. Chapter 6: Uh Oh

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it. **To FanFicGirl10:** Daryl isn't really jealous of Whitie, it just finds the man very very very strange. It's the reason he's not sure about him. If he was going to be jealous of any of them it would probably be more justified for him to be jealous of Kevin after all him and Clara did have a very short lived past which was mentioned in Kindred Spirits. **To my guest reviewer, DixenFtw: **Merle will be coming back into the story but probably later on. I have plans for him…good plans. I understand the logic between him being vilified in fan fiction but I absolutely love the character. I think there's a lot of Merle in the show that we haven't seen I hope that I do him justice when the time comes. **To Leyshla Gisel**: Hehe…the whole exchange between Clara, Marissa, and Sadie was actually something that happened to a very good friend of mine. When she told me the story I told her that it was just too good to pass up and that it would end up in my writing somewhere when the opportunity presented itself and I thought now was perfect. **To GatorGirl99:** I could see the whole scene in the truck unfolding in my head as I wrote it. I remember growing up my dad has an old blue Ford that's two years older than the one used in season 2 of the Walking Dead and I remember my brothers and me fighting over who got stuffed in the middle. While I don't see Glenn putting up too much of a fight with Glenn over it I do see him bitching about it. It seems like he always gets hazed like the time they put him in the well. To my **Guest Reviewer:** You're welcome as long as the stories keep coming to me I'll keep writing them.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Uh Oh **

After she finished helping Hershel turn what used to be the R.A.'s office into storage for the medical supplies, Marissa made her way up stairs to Clara and Daryl's room. She knew her best friend had headed up to air the dorm room out. She needed to talk to her, away from everyone else. Last thing she wanted to do was embarrass the hell out of Clara but it was important. When she reached Clara's room she knocked lightly on the door, waited for her to respond before going inside. Clara was in the process of tidying the room up. The place was musty and dusty from neglect. "Does it feel weird to be back here?" she asked as she set down at on the desk chair.

Clara nodded, "It feels like this is different life. That the person I was before doesn't exist anymore, if she ever really existed at all."

Marissa nodded as she pushed her long red hair from her face, "What was it like being on the road like that?"

"Scary, after a while you just start surviving on instinct. It's constantly being one step ahead of the walkers and the people who will hurt you." She said.

"What do you mean the people that would hurt you?" Marissa asked confused.

"You've really been sheltered here." Clara said. Talking to Marissa was like talking to Maggie, Beth, and Hershel just after they got to the farm. They didn't really understand the threat that they were all now faced with. "The walkers aren't the only ones you have to worry about. There are people out there that are bad too. It's like the stress of this kind of environment makes them forget everything that made them who they were before. It's a lot like _Lord of the Flies_; it's what happened to Shane. He was a good man and then he allowed all of that goodness to be stripped away. By the end he didn't know the difference between right and wrong."

"Well apparently not if he was getting his freak on with his best friend's wife," Marissa said.

"I don't think it was like that," Clara said, "Lori told me they were almost to the point of divorce before Rick got shot. Then she thought he was dead at the hospital and Shane was the one who got them out of King County he pulled us together and formed the Atlanta camp. He made mistakes as our leader and he knew that, I think that Rick coming back made him question who he was in our new life. I think that Lori blamed him for Rick being left in King County."

"Damn." Marissa said, "That's a lot of baggage you're group's dealt with."

Clara nodded as she set down on the bed and pulled her knees up to rest her arms on. "But I get the feeling that the group isn't the reason you've come to chat."

Marissa sighed, "No you're right it's not."

"Come on…out with it." Clara said.

"So um…just thinking about earlier at the clinic-"

"I'm not describing it to you." Clara said.

Marissa made a face, "Ew no…I'm not Sadie." She cleared her throat then continued, "No it's just that with the condoms-you said that you and Daryl hadn't used anything and I was just-wondering-when-your-last-period-was." The last part of what she was saying was run together.

To be honest it was the first time Clara had given any thought to what Marissa was asking her. "While we were at Camp in Atlanta just before the walkers attacked, but you know I've never really been all that regular."

Marissa nodded, "Yes and you also wasn't having wild unprotected monkey sex with a sexy redneck hunter who I'm pretty sure is so virile he could get you pregnant just by the way he stares you down."

"Yeah but there's been stress and running-"

"And the wild animal sex." Marissa said.

Clara's face was bright red, "How do you know it's been wild an animal like."

Marissa snorted, "Because nothing about Daryl Mother-Fucking Dixon says vanilla." Before Clara had a chance to continue she cut her off, "And then there was Daryl last night with the mentioning that you hadn't been eating enough to keep a damn bird alive. He also said that you've hadn't been sleeping much and then this morning at breakfast you only ate dry corn bread."

"I ate the cherries-" Clara said.

"Yeah and what person eats maraschino cherries straight from a jar on the regular?" Marissa asked.

"Me?" Clara offered.

"And you didn't just eat them you devoured them, I'm pretty sure if me or Maggie tried to take the jar you would have ripped our hands off."

"See now you're blowing this whole thing out of proportion." Clara said.

"Am I?" Marissa asked as she pulled the box she'd stashed in her pocket out and laid it on the desk. "If you're so sure that I'm right, take the test."

"I don't need to take it." Clara said.

Marissa sighed as she stood up, "Clara I love you but you're being a stubborn pain in the ass. And this really isn't a time to be a stubborn pain the ass. If you're pregnant we need to know so we can take care of you." With that she walked out of the room shutting the door behind her.

Clara frowned as she looked across the room at the pink and white box that was lying on the desk….mocking her.

* * *

After unloading the supplies Daryl made his way upstairs to find Clara. After her being sick that morning he wanted to make sure that everything had gone alright with their small supply trip. He used his shoulder to push the door opened. He frowned when he saw Clara sitting at the desk staring intently at…something. "Everything okay?" he asked sitting down at the end of the bed. Because the room was small he was able to reach and grab the back of the desk chair and pull her to him.

"Define okay." Clara said looking up at him.

Daryl frowned as he cupped her face, "Nothing happened while you all were getting supplies did it? Nobody was hurt? You weren't hurt?"

Clara shook her head, "No it wasn't that, well not exactly."

"Then what is it?" he frowned.

Clara took a deep breath trying to think of the best way to explain everything that had happened. "Okay so me and Marissa and Sadie were gathering supplies in the old infirm while Kevin and Whitie were on point. We were joking around, Marissa found this box of condoms and well the conversation went a little gutter face because when Sadie is around even innocent conversations can go gutter face." She knew that she was rambling but there was no way she was going to tell Daryl that the gutter faced part of the banter at the infirm happened to be about his penis size. She just had a deep down gut feeling that would not go over well. "Well anyway I guess some things started to add up in Marissa's head her being a premed and all. I mean and the more I think about it does make sense. I've been over tired but I can't sleep, I'm senstetive to smells, and I'm easily nauseated. Sometimes I have trouble even holding food down." Tears filled Clara's eyes, "And I haven't had my period since just before the farm. I didn't really think about it then because well I've never really been all that regular. But then Marissa…she left me this test and I had told her that I didn't need to take it cause I was sure. I think I've been lying to myself for a while now."

Daryl's mind was racing; this was the last thing he'd expected to hear when he asked Clara if everything was okay. He'd be lying to himself if he said he hadn't thought about it a million times, what Clara would look like with her body swollen with his baby. In the times he thought about it, they were safe on the farm, the walkers were off somewhere else having a party. His people…his family was safe in those thoughts. Without saying anything he pulled Clara's trembling body into his arms and held her tightly, "It's gonna be okay." He said stroking her hair.

Clara buried her face against the side of his neck as she held onto him tightly, "Darly…I don't think you understand…I'm pregnant."


	7. Chapter 7: Ain't Never Gonna Let You Go

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it. To piratejessieswaby: Oh shit indeed, hehe you know me and my drama. To **Feathersblue17:** Glad that you feel like that about my story. This had been planned probably since I started this story I just wasn't exactly sure how and when it was going to happen. **To .44:** Now you have me curious as to what conclusion you had come to. **To Dalonega Noquisi:** I was dropping anvils about Clara being pregnant…you are the only one who picked up on them so kudos. **To FanFicGirl10:** Well you know what happens when you assume…hehe just kidding. To answer your question yes she is sure. I didn't put it in but it's the reason she was staring at the 'something' on the desk. I probably should have explained that better so sorry on my part. **To PeacefulDuck, actressen, loveorpain, my Guest reviewer, Leyshla Gisel, Faith Slays:** I'm happy that you're enjoying the story and that I've shocked the shit out of you.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Ain't Never Gonna Let You Go**

The first thing that went through Daryl's mind when those two little words were uttered was Merle's voice calling him a dumb fuck. Knowing that Merle's jeering platitudes weren't what Clara needed to hear or what he needed to be thinking he pushed them from his mind. It was time to man up; this was on him he knew that this was on him. Slowly he pulled her back and pushed her hair from her face, "Look at me Clara." He said his voice thick with emotion. He waited until her eyes were locked with his, "This ain't gonna change anything."

"Daryl how can you say that?" she asked. "This is terrifying."

"Yeah I'll agree with you there. It doesn't change us what we have. I'm not gonna leave you alone to deal with this. I'm gonna take care of you….the baby." He said it seemed so strange him uttering those words. "I love you Clara."

Clara closed her eyes as two tears fell down her cheeks. "I've never doubted you."

"That's good." He said wiping her tears away.

"I love you too you know." She said.

"Ain't never doubted you neither." He said then grinned. "Might have questioned your sanity a time or two but never doubted you."

"Why did you question my sanity?" she asked.

"Cause you're so fucking beautiful, I can't figure out what the hell you're doing with an ugly bastard like me." He said.

"Daryl Dixon there ain't anything ugly about you." Clara said before kissing him softly.

Daryl shook his head, "There's a lot ugly about me." He said. He couldn't help but grin when he saw the death Clara gave him. "Fine you win."

"I always win with you." Clara said laying her head on his shoulder. "There's no way we can keep this quiet for a while is there?"

Daryl shook his head, "No I think it's better if we put it all out on the table." He didn't come out and say it but he knew that he needed to talk to someone who was going through….well not quite the same thing he was but close. "I mean I don't want you to get in a situation where you'll get hurt."

Clara nodded as she laid her head against Daryl's shoulder and closed her eyes. Daryl ran his hand up her back and leaned down and pressed a kiss to her shoulder before lying back on the bed with her still in his arms. She ran her hand up his arm before looking up at him; she didn't say anything as she studied his face before pulling him down into a slow kiss. Daryl groaned his hand sinking into the back of her hair as he nipped gently at her tongue. He rolled her onto her back before coming over top of her, groaning when he felt her soft body under him. Slowly he pulled back looking down at her. "You sure you're up for this?" he asked, he was worried about her, how sick she'd been lately.

Clara nodded as she pushed his vest over his shoulders before undoing he buttons on his shirt. "I'm sure." She said leaning up to trail kisses down the side of his neck.

Daryl closed his eyes and groaned, he loved the way her hot mouth felt moving over his skin. He pulled her shirt from her jeans, his fingertips brushed her soft skin as he pulled the shirt over her head and dropped it on the bed beside of them. He leaned down and took her nipple into his mouth teasing it with his tongue.

Clara gasped, her hand fisting in his hair. "Easy there tiger."

Daryl frowned and pulled back, "Am I hurtin' you?"

"There um…just a little sensitive is all." She said her cheeks flaming.

His frowned deepened, "You sure we should do this…I mean it's not gonna hurt the baby is it?"

Clara bit back a smile, "It's okay." She said before squeezing his ass and grinding against him.

Daryl groaned, instinctively he pressed against her, "That's not fair." He said before kissing he roughly. He ravaged her mouth with his tongue and lips causing her to whimper in pleasure against his mouth. He pulled back looking down at her before trailing a hot path of kisses down her neck and over her breasts as he undone her jeans. He wasn't sure what exactly had caused this feral need inside of him. Sure he always wanted Clara; there wasn't a moment in the day when he wasn't thinking about having her in his arms.

Clara lifted her hips as Daryl tugged her jeans off, while she undone the front of his. She slid her hand inside freeing him from them. He started to push her hands away knowing that if she teased him the way he did her he'd never be able to handle it. Before he had a chance, he felt Clara guide him into her wet heat. "Goddamn Clara." He groaned his forehead resting against hers. She closed her eyes and gasped when he started to move. It seemed like it had been forever since they'd been together like this rather than a handful of days. She dug her nails into his back and sobbed in pleasure as she buried her face against his neck.

Daryl pulled back and looked down at her, "Look at me Clara." He said his voice husky. He waited until her blue eyes locked with his before he pulled out and buried himself inside of her again. Clara held tightly onto him as she met him thrust for thrust. It wasn't long before they both came crying each other's names.

* * *

It was almost dusk when Daryl was finally pulled himself away from Clara. He ran his hand through his hair as he looked over his shoulder at her, curled up asleep in their bed. He couldn't help the slightly smug grin that spread across his lips. Slowly he dressed, grabbed his crossbow before heading downstairs. He nodded to Marissa who'd been talking with Dale, Beth and Hershel.

Marissa excused herself from the conversation and walked over to Daryl, "She okay?" she asked keeping her voice low enough so they weren't overheard.

Daryl nodded, "She's sleeping."

She nodded her arms crossed under her breasts, "I'll make sure nobody bothers her. You going on watch?"

He nodded, "Told Rick I would meet him an hour ago…got tied up."

Marissa bit back a smiled, "I'm sure you did."

He ran his hand through his hair, "She is…by the way."

She frowned, "How's she handling it?"

Daryl sighed, "Get that look off of your face. You all act like it's a fucking death sentence."

Marissa narrowed her eyes at him. "It's not exactly rainbows and kittens either. She's right to be scared hell we all are. She's like a sister to me Daryl."

"She's my fucking wife!" Daryl snapped at her then realized what he said, "She's as good as."

"No…nuh uh…Just because you and Clara made some kinda agreement doesn't make her your wife. I know her she wanted a wedding and you'll damn well give her one." Marissa said.

Daryl gave her confused look, "The fuck you just say to me?"

She crossed her arms under her breasts, "I said if you want the right to call my best friend your wife you're gonna marry her."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" he asked. "Last time I went to church it was full of walkers. Besides Clara doesn't believe in that shit and it's not like there's a courthouse we can go to."

"You're really slow. You have Hershel which is as good as a minster; you have your friends and family. I mean I don't see where the problem is. Isn't it your guy Dale always preaching that just because the world changed doesn't mean we have to?" Marissa asked. "I mean you and Clara could have the first wedding with Walkers in attendance."

Daryl couldn't help but laugh, "Sounds like a good time, let me think on it alright."

"Just don't think too long." Marissa said before walking back to Hershel, Dale, and Beth.

Daryl looked back into the common room before heading outside, after checking with T-Dog he headed up to the clock tower where Rick was on watch with Whitie. Daryl nodded to the man letting him know that he was going to take over. He set down on one of the chairs and propped his feet up on the railing. Rick looked over at his friend; he could tell that something was going on with him. While Glenn tended to bounce off of the walls before blurting out his ever inner thought Daryl got quiet. While to someone that didn't know the man well wouldn't think anything was wrong Rick knew better. "I was talking to Whitie…I was thinking that it might be a good idea for them to move in to the residence hall with us." Rick said.

Daryl nodded, "We call pool man power and resources. Plus winter coming it's smarter to heat one building."

"It's my thoughts, besides I don't think they'll be letting Clara out of their sight." Rick said before looking over at Daryl from the corner of his eye.

"Me neither…that redhead Marissa…she's like a fucking pit bull." Daryl said.

"What did she do?" Rick asked.

"Just you know…being a girl and shit." Daryl shrugged.

"You know you could cut to the chase and tell me what's going on or we can spend the rest of the night shooting the shit and not solving whatever needs to be solved." Rick said.

Daryl thought about it for a few minutes then sighed, "Clara's pregnant."

Rick nodded his head, "Congratulations."

Daryl narrowed his eyes as he looked over at Rick, "That's all you have to say?"

"What do you want me to do say you fucked up?" Rick asked. "I'm not Merle, I'm not gonna make you feel like a piece of shit over this."

He nodded then ran his hand over his face, "I won't lie and say that I hadn't thought about it. It's just that when I did-"

"We were on the farm." Rick finished for him. "I know…it's why I fought so hard to get Hershel to let us stay. I didn't want Lori to spend the whole time she's pregnant running."

"Clara's…she's been pretty sick and she barely eats. She doesn't sleep much. I worry about her constantly and now this." Daryl looked over at Rick with desperation in his eyes, "I can't lose her Rick."

"Whoa…what makes you think that would happen?" he asked.

"This life…it's all about death. We're all gonna die and I just keep thinking-"

Rick cut him off, "Clara's gonna be fine. This place is safe, once we make sure it stays that way we'll start scouting like we always planned to back at the farm. We're gonna find a place that's safe where we can live and our kids can live."

Daryl thought about it. He knew what Rick was saying was right; it was just that everything hitting him at once he needed a place to vent his fears. There were just some things a man couldn't tell his woman. It was his job to be strong for Clara…for their baby. He needed someone to tell him what he already knew they'd find their own pipe dream. "So um…Marissa has this idea in her head that me and Clara need to get married."


	8. Chapter 8: From One Mother to Another

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 8: From One Mother To Another**

It was dark outside when Clara woke up; it took her a few seconds to find her clothes and dress. She made a mental note to grab one of the oil lamps from downstairs before she came back up. She'd never been able to navigate her way through this room in the dark. Of course that had been before the world had gone to shit. Before then, she had to contend with a maze of Sadie's shoes laying all about the floor. Now the room was scattered with her gear and Daryl's which could be just as lethal as a pair of three inch stilettos…probably even more so. With that in mind she carefully felt her way out of the room. Once she made it to the door she was fine, the hallway, though just as dark was a least clear of debris. As she was coming down the stairs she smelled the remnants of dinner and her stomach growled loudly. "It's about damn time you woke your lazy ass up." Sadie teased when Clara walked into the common room.

Clara yawned and stretched, "Why did you let me sleep so long?"

"I was gonna wake you for dinner I thought Marissa was gonna take my head off when I suggested it." Sadie shrugged. "And she's one scary bitch."

Clara couldn't help but laugh, "That she is.

Everyone was sitting about chatting back and forth, telling stories some of them before the world went to shit some of them after. Glenn and Carl were over in one of the room's corner with Whitie and Kevin; they were going through Kevin's supply of comic books and chatting about their favorites. Clara couldn't help but smile, she knew that this was something the boy needed. After everything that had happened on the farm he needed friends, ones that wouldn't treat him like he was nothing but a little kid. He'd get that with Kevin and Whitie, they might have been older than him but when it came to video games and comic books they were a bunch of over grown man-children.

Clara walked on into the room. "Is there anything left from dinner?" she asked.

Marissa who'd been talking over with Hershel what medical supplies they'd need to go into the town for, looked up, "Lori has you a plate saved. She's had the boys working all afternoon turning that study/quiet room into a kitchen. She's in there with Maggie cleaning up."

Clara nodded before going down the hall to the room that Marissa was talking about. "The dead has risen." Maggie said with a smile as she walked over to Clara and tried to smooth her riotous curls down. "Girl you have some crazy ass hair going on."

"You have to be starving." Lori said getting the plate for Clara and sitting it down in front of Clara.

It was a simple meal: there was a slice of canned ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and sweet peas but compared to what they'd been living off of the last week it was a feast for a king. "I can't work the magic with the canned ham that Patricia and your mama did but I tried. Daryl wasn't pleased with it, said that once we got settled in he'd try to do some hunting." Lori said.

"No Lori this is wonderful." Clara said as she dug into the food.

"Well I'm gonna go grab Glenn and get a few minutes alone with him before we have to relieve Rick and Daryl for night watch." Maggie said.

"Good luck dragging him away." Clara said, "They were having an intense conversation about Bane breaking Batman's back when I came downstairs."

Maggie wiggled her eyebrows, "Don't worry I've learned how to distract Glenn."

Both Lori and Clara laughed, "I'm sure you do."

Lori set down across from Clara at the table, while Clara finished eating. They chatted back and forth about things that were going on. Like their fortune at finding shelter at the university, how they were would with luck be able to hold out the winter there. It was really the first time since they were on the road after the farm that the two women had spent much time together. Since finding her friends, Clara had been spending more time with them. "It's gotta be a comfort you know with the baby coming and all." Clara said. She knew that even as she said the words she meant them for her own benefit as well.

Lori nodded, "I try not to worry about, Rick he's a good man and he provides-"

"But with as unpredictable as things are now you don't know what to expect." Clara finished for her.

"Sometimes I think you know what I'm going through better than I do." Lori said.

She shrugged, "I wouldn't say that. I mean what you're going through is different than what I'm going through."

Lori frowned, "Clara what do you mean?"

Clara took a deep breath, then looked over at Lori, "I'm pregnant."

Lori's mouth dropped opened, that was the last thing that she'd expected Clara to say. She knew that her and Daryl were…well her and Daryl she just thought that the two of them had enough common sense to keep this from happening. Hell even Glenn was smart enough to wrap it up. "I never expected you to be so stupid." Lori said.

Out of everything Lori could have said to her, Clara couldn't have been more shocked if the woman would have slapped her in the face. "E-excuse me?" she stammered.

"Exactly what I said, do you think that I wanted to get pregnant? Do you think that I want to be going through this right now?" Lori asked. "Yeah we might be safe right now but how long before we have to run again? Have you thought about that? I have, I know that the chances of this baby surviving after its born will be slim and I accept that. Things aren't like they used to be and what happens if Daryl decides to take off? How are you gonna handle that?"

Clara's eye stung with tears, this was the last thing she'd expected from Lori after all she'd thought of the woman as an older sister. The words that poured like venom from her mouth was enough to cut her apart. Still she refused to let her tears fall, "I'm a lot of things Lori, but stupid isn't one of them. I didn't plan to get pregnant but I'm not afraid of living either. You have no faith in anyone and that is your goddamn problem-" Lori started to interrupt Clara but she stopped her. "No let me finish. Yes things are much harder now than they were six months ago. Things will be different again tomorrow we don't know what the world is gonna bring. The thing is life keeps going on and because of that I will not sit back and do the woe is me bullshit, that's your deal, I'm gonna make the most of this. As for Daryl leaving…he loves me he's not going anywhere. You might think that I'm stupid but at least I know who the father of my baby is." With that she stood up and walked out of the make shift kitchen. She didn't say anything as she grabbed her oil lamp from the common room and headed up to her bed room. She needed to have a good cry, hormones be damned, before she could even talk to anyone.

Marissa frowned when she saw Clara grab her lamp and hot tail it up stairs. She didn't have to be told that something had been said to upset her best friend. Over the years she'd seen that behavior often from her best friend. She excused herself from Hershel and made her way to the kitchen where Lori was at, "What the fuck did you say to her?" Marissa demanded as she crossed her arms under her breasts.

"Excuse me?" Lori asked her eyes wide.

"I said… Fuck. Did You say to my best friend." Marissa said slowly.

"I don't think it's any of your business." Lori said using her 'I'm superior' voice.

"Clara is the closest thing to family I have left. I've known her since we were kids; I know that when she walked out of here she was very upset. Seeing as how you're the only one who was in here with her that means you were the one to do it." Marissa said.

"Did you know Clara was pregnant?" Lori asked her thin arms crossing under her breasts.

Marissa snorted, "Clara's a sweet girl but she's completely oblivious, who do you think was the one who made her take the test?"

"Well aren't you so clever." Lori said. "You're probably the one who filled her head with nonsense about all of this, that her baby is gonna have a real shot in this world. That when push comes to shove that Daryl is gonna stick around."

"You are a horrible person." Marissa said causing Lori to gasp, "Tell me that I'm wrong. You are so defeated that you don't even see what a miracle that has happened to you. Before you start on about how I don't know you, you're right I don't. I only know what Clara's told me about how when you thought your husband was dead that you hooked up with his best friend. That you drove a wedge between the two of them, that you don't even know who the father of your baby is. That the whole time that you were at that farm, you were so preoccupied with your own shit that you had no time for your own goddamn son."

"You have no right to judge me." Lori said bitterly.

Marissa shrugged, "You're right I really don't. That doesn't mean that I don't judge you. Now I only got a B in my psych class but I'm pretty sure that if it wasn't for the fact that my professor is a walker he'd probably agree with me on this. Whatever you said to Clara I'm pretty sure that it was just your own fears and guilt that you projected on her. Your statement just now about Daryl taking off on Clara it has nothing to do with Daryl and Clara in fact if you weren't such a bitter dried up bitch you'd see that they were solid. Anyway it comes down to the fact that you feel guilty over the Shane thing, you know that you bare some responsibly for his death and you can't handle it. You know that Rick should throw your ass out by the curb but he's too much of a gentleman to ever do that."

"And you think you could do a better job?" Lori asked.

"Maybe I'm not sure, and we'll never know…but there is one thing I know for damn sure." Marissa shrugged.

"And what's that?"

"I'm not a two bit, two timing, home wrecking whore." She smirked.

Lori reared her hand back and slapped Marissa across the face as hard as she could. She wasn't sure why her words affected her so much but they did. Maybe it was the fact that she hit far too close to home for Lori's comfort. "You stay the hell away from my husband." Lori hissed.

"And you stay the hell away from my best friend." Marissa said she started to turn around and then looked back at Lori, "Just so you know next time you decide to put on your big girl panties and bitch slap someone you best expect to get your ass kicked…pregnant or not, I don't give two shits…which is sad cause I don' think you would either." With that she walked out of the kitchen. She knew there was a stinging red hand print on her face.

Daryl was just coming into the residence hall when Marissa came out of the makeshift kitchen. He frowned when he saw the hand print on her face, "What the hell happened?" he asked.

"Just girl talk…you might want to go check in on Clara…Skeletor said some things that upset her I'm not exactly sure what but I have a few ideas." Marissa said pushing her long hair over her shoulder.

Daryl frowned, "Skeletor?"

"Rick's anorexic bitch whore of a wife." Marissa said hoping that would clear things up.

Daryl frowned, "Her and Clara always got along."

"I don't know…maybe Skeletor's jealous colors are just starting to show." With that Marissa walked away from him.


	9. Chapter 9: Someday

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.**

**Author's Note: **Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it. **To xmenfan33, Dalonega Noquisi, Micaela Beth Winchester, FanFicGirl10, Leyshla Gisel, Feathersblue17, and icebabesfire: **Yes Lori is a bitch. For a lot of reasons I have potrayed Lori different in this story than I have in my other stories. I think that there are a lot of sides to her character and as much as I loved to hate her during seasons 1&2 there were times that I did feel sorry for her even though she was an idiot. Of course at the same time when I talked about those seasons when they were going on the first things out of my mouth were always Lori is a whore and Shane is a piece of shit. While I still feel that way I do like to play around with the different aspects of a character. With her relationship with Clara, Clara hadn't really ever seen that vindictive side of her. To Clara she'd always been that older sister. She even defended to Marissa a few chapters back the 'affair' that Lori had with Shane. As for Lori I think in a lot of ways her heart was in the right place but she went the wrong way about it. It's because of the guilt she has with the not knowing who the baby's father is and what she put Rick through that she really can't do the glasses half full thing. To her, the glass is bone dry and it's the middle of a drought. And yes she is jealous for more reasons than just the relationship Daryl and Clara has. She's also is jealous of the friendship that Clara has with Marissa and Sadie. Until they got to the university, when Clara needed a female to talk to it was generally her. Like I mentioned before Clara didn't judge her for what happened with Shane. Lori already feels like she's loosing Rick and now she thinks she's loosing Clara as a friend too and throw in some pregnancy hormones and you have a hot mess. And Marissa would probably kick Lori's ass pregnant or not if she did anything to hurt Clara. **To piratejessieswaby, **my blood thirsty friend: No we can't kill Lori yet. I kinda need her for a while longer.** To loveorpain: **So…I laughed my ass off when I got your review. I'm not sure if you're familiar with Teamfourstar's Dragon Ball Z: Abridged, but when I read your review it was in the voice they use for Lord Guru. It really made my night. **To maddielala56:** I am glad to be your heroin and feed your addiction. **To RICTATORSHIP:** Yes Woodbury and Michonne will be coming into the story at some point. I'm the type of viewer that when I watch something and there's a gap between the end of something and the beginning of something else I set back and wonder exactly what's going on. Plus I can't bring myself to write any Season 3 stuff until I've seen it in its entirety. I have a few ideas of things that is going to happen when we get to that point but nothing is really set in stone.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 9: Someday**

Daryl stood at the door for a few seconds, he wasn't exactly sure what he was going to walk into. Part of him wanted to go kick Rick's ass for letting his wife be an uppity bitch but he knew that would do no good, it wasn't Rick's fault Lori's personality sucked. He just wondered exactly what it was that caused Lori to go off on Clara they'd always been tight, maybe he'd been wrong. Deciding to grow a pair he pushed the door opened and walked inside. He frowned, in the soft glow from the oil lamp he saw Clara sitting Indian style on the bed with a beat up acoustic guitar in her lap. The dirt on her face was streaked with perfect lines were tears and fall down them. "Where did you find that?" he asked sitting down on the bed with her.

"It's mine." She said, "It was in my closet."

"Can you play it?" he asked.

Clara nodded, "I'm okay."

"Then how come when Glenn had that guitar at the farm you didn't fess up?" he asked.

She wiped her tears on the back of her hand smearing the tears and dirt. It was then that she realized exactly how dirty she was. "Ugh I'm disgusting." She said in an attempt to change the subject.

Daryl grinned, "A little dirt never hurt anyone." He said, "But you didn't answer my question."

Clara set the guitar on the floor propping it against the nightstand. "The same reason you never told me about the sketch book in your pack." She looked over at him.

"You knew about that?" he asked. He wasn't sure if he should be angry or pissed.

"I found when you first moved in my tent back at the farm." She said. "I made sure it made it off of the farm too."

He nodded, "I wondered about that."

"I'm gonna go out on the limb and say we shouldn't have secrets between us. I mean we've seen each other naked." Clara pointed out.

Daryl couldn't help but grin, "Yeah we definitely have."

"I learned to play when I was eight; I taught myself how to play because Ed wouldn't pay for me to have lessons because he thought they were pointless. I used to have to play in secret and the only people who ever really knew about it was Mama, Sophia, Marissa, and Sadie." She explained. "So why did you never tell anyone about your drawing?"

Daryl shrugged, "Cause to my pap and Merle it would have been seen as somethin' weak. Make me less than a man."

Clara knew that Daryl was trying to push it off like it wasn't a big deal but she'd learned long ago how to read his emotions. "I thought they were beautiful."

His brow wrinkled, "Did you look at all of them?"

Clara knew he was thinking of the picture he'd drawn of her when they were back in Atlanta. "I saw them all. I didn't tell anyone about them either. I wouldn't do that to you."

"Thank you." He said leaning forward and kissing her softly. He pulled back and rested his forehead against hers, "You gonna tell me what Lori said?"

Clara shook her head, "It's between me and Lori."

Daryl raised an eyebrow, "What was that shit about no secrets?"

"It's not a secret it's just that I know what you'll do if I told you." Clara said.

"If you're worried that I'll go off on her, Red's already beat me to the punch." He said.

"Huh?" she asked.

"Red ripped Lori a new one, she's fuming mad about something." He said.

Clara sighed, "You know I can handle my own shit right?" Clara asked.

Daryl held his hands up in mock surrender, "I damn well know what you're capable of." He reminded her.

Clara sighed, "I told Lori about the baby. I figured if anyone would understand it would be her."

Daryl nodded; he knew exactly what she'd expected from Lori. It's the reason he'd gone and talked to Rick, he did think it interesting that the couple had very different views about what was going on. "But she didn't." he offered.

Clara shook her head, "She called me stupid."

Daryl closed his eyes and mentally counted to ten. It was all he could do to keep his famous Dixon temper in check. "She's the one fucking her husband's best friend but you're the stupid one?"

"She's scared-"

"Don't you fuckin' even make excuses for her. She might be pissing her pants but that doesn't give her the right to put that shit on you. She made her bed." Daryl snapped.

"She did have some points though." Clara said. "I mean I didn't plan on getting pregnant…but I also didn't plan on the farm getting overrun either."

"I thought about it…you being pregnant us havin' a little one." He said with a shrug. "I thought about it a lot when we were at the farm."

Clara couldn't help but smile, "What did you think?"

Daryl shrugged feeling a little uncomfortable. "I don't know." He shrugged as he leaned back on the head board. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her back with him. "You wearing that yellow dress with the orange flowers, it stretched over your round belly." He said after a few minutes as he gently stroked her hair.

"I have to admit," she looked up at him. "I never would have pinned you for someone who wanted kids."

"Why did you think that?" he asked.

"Well you were always that loner type. I figured the word 'baby' and you would have been like alright that's game." She said.

"Nah babies are easy they don't care who you are, they just want to be comforted and feel safe you know." He said.

"I know." Clara said with a smile.

"So…you ever gonna play that thing for me?" Daryl asked nodding to her guitar.

"Someday." Clara smiled.


	10. Chapter 10: To New Beginings

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it.** To Leyshla Gisel**: I will try to work that in, if the moment presents itself. I'm like you I can totally see it too, it's the nice thing about all that visual thinking. To xmenfan33: That's always what went through my head during Daryl's interactions with 'Lil Asskicker'. To Micaela Beth Winchester: I agree Lori was way out of line with the way she handled things but as soon as I wrote Clara as being pregnant I saw her (Lori) having that reaction. I really can't explain all the reasons why but yeah. **To FanFicGirl10: I** can honestly say that Clara doesn't doubt Daryl. I think when she first realized she was pregnant there was a lot of fear but there was never any doubt. **To PeacefulDuck, Dalonega Noquisi, icebabesfire, piratejessieswaby, Feathersblue17, and maddielala56:** Thank you all so much for your reviews.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 10: To New Beginings**

Kevin couldn't shake the weird feeling he got as he made his way up the stairs in the residences hall, he had his back pack slung over his shoulder and his arms were laden with what was left of his prized comic book collection. While he knew that it was probably stupid him still carting them around he just couldn't seem to give them up. After all it was the little things that kept them going. Sure in all the years that he'd been a student at the university he'd had very brief visits up stairs. Now he was going to living there. Of course during those days the place had been girl central. Like all guys his age he still had the fantasy about the very sexy females having pillow fights in their underwear. It was a fantasy that he had no intention of giving up anytime soon either. You could kill the dreamer, but you couldn't kill the dream. As he reached the top of the stairs he looked around trying to figure out where the best place for him was. The only problem was he only knew where Clara and Daryl were staying. Deciding to just pick a room a random he went to the end of the hall and used his shoulder to nudge a door opened. "Shit, I didn't know anyone was in here." He said when he saw Beth sitting on the bed flipping through a book.

Beth gave him a small smile, "It's okay."

"I was just…you know…looking for a place to crash." He said shifting the box in his arms. He was pretty sure that Beth was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. Considering that three of his best friends were equally stunning specimens of the female variety it said a lot. She had an almost sweet innocent glow about her, and he liked the shy smiles she shot his way and her dimples. He also thought it was cute the way she'd asked Clara if she thought it would be alright if she used the clothes that was in her closet. He could tell by the slightly haunted look in her eyes that much like the rest of them had seen far too much. He even liked the soft country tone of her voice.

Beth nodded, "I figured as much. I think the room by the stairs is open." She offered.

"Thanks." He said then looked down at her book, "What are you reading?"

She blushed a little before lifting the book up, it was an old issue of some teen fashion magazine. "I know it's silly but I always liked to look at the pictures. The new clothes and stuff, there was a whole stack of them in here and just flipping through them it kinda helps me forget you know."

Kevin nodded, "There's no judgment here, I'm still carting around a box of comics."

"I think it's kinda…cute." She said.

"Me too," Kevin said.

"Did you lose a lot of people?" she asked.

"I'm not sure really, when things got back me and Marissa started back home but there were so many road blocks around Atlanta we couldn't find a way through. I like to believe that my family made it out. What about you?" he asked, sitting the box down on one of the desks and leaning against the wall.

"We lost a lot of people at the farm." She said softly as she looked down at her hands, "My mom and my brother Shaun…my boyfriend Jimmy. Otis and Patricia…they worked for my dad on the farm but they were like family. Patricia she died the night we lost the farm we were loading the trucks and she was pulled out of my arms."

Kevin didn't know why he did it, maybe it was pure instinct maybe it was the world they were living in. He didn't say anything he set down on the bed with her and pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry." Beth knew that it was wrong to let this boy she'd just met hold her like this, for once she didn't let that part of her brain over take her she just set back and enjoyed how it felt being held.

* * *

Clara had her back pack strap slung over her shoulder as she made her way into the bathroom. The moment that Rick and Glenn had come upstairs from the basement and announced that the pilot heating the water-which came from a well-was lit she'd been dying to do this. She laid her stuff down on the counter and quickly shed her dirty clothe laying them in a neat pile before wrapping herself in a towel, grabbing her toiletries, and walking into the shower room. It was odd being in the place and having it completely to herself. In days gone past there would have been seven or eight girls at a time in there giggling, talking about their boyfriends or whatever party that was going to be going on that week. Pushing all of those thoughts from her mind, she turned the water on and waited for it to warm up before hanging the towel on the towel rack and sitting her things on the ledge in front of her. She let the water beat on her face before dipping her head letting it pour down her neck.

Daryl had followed Clara into the shower room and bit back a groan when he saw her naked form through the clear shower curtain. He quickly shed his own clothes before following her. He push curtain back before coming up behind her and running his hand over her hip and trailing kisses down the side of her neck. "Figured I'd find you here."

Clara smiled as she leaned back against him. "So you thought you'd give me a hand?"

Daryl grinned, "You think I'd let handle this by yourself?" he asked as he turned her around and looked down at her. This shower was so much different than the last one they'd shared back at the farm. Instead of it being about sorrow it was about them and their need for each other. Daryl's tongue hungrily swept into her mouth, as he tightened his arms around her. He pulled her soft body flush against him; he loved the way she fit so perfectly into his arms. He knew that he would never be able to get enough of her and the fact that she carried his child only proved to make him want her more.

Clara pulled back enough to look up at him she could feel her lips already bruised and swollen from his kisses. "Do you have any idea how much I love you?" she asked her hands running up his water slickened back.

"If it's anywhere near as much as I love you then it has to be pretty damn intense." He said looking down at her.

She didn't say anything as she smiled up at him and then pulled him down into another hungry kiss. Daryl grabbed her by her ass and lifted her up wrapping her long legs around him. He pressed her against the cool tile wall before sliding slowly inside of her. Clara closed her eyes and sobbed his name her back arched off of the wall taking him deeper. He groaned when he felt how wet she was the way she engulfed him felt like heaven. He pressed his forehead against hers as he pulled out and slid into her again slowly. He took his time his hands roaming her soft body as he made love to her.

Clara met him stroke for stroke her nails biting into Daryl's back, "I'm so close." She sobbed.

"I know." Daryl growled in pleasure and as her body started to tighten around his he started to claim her harder. It wasn't long before they both came crying each other's names.

Daryl collapsed against Clara his body pressing hers into the wall. "I think all showers should be like that." She moaned softly.

"Damn right it is, I plan on making that happen too." He said before kissing her softly.


	11. Chapter 11: Revelations

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 11: Revelations**

Over the next few days they spent time getting the residence hall ready for winter. They got the downstairs windows boarded up and secured the fence. With all that done the decided to make a trip to the strip mall, after the attack on the farm and being on the road they'd used up most of the ammo they'd had. Besides they needed other things, they had to start stock piling things they'd need for the babies among other personal items. Clara walked out to where Daryl was squatted down beside of his motorcycle. "Getting ready to head out?" she asked running her hands over her arms.

Daryl let his eyes trail slowly over Clara as she walked over to him. "Yeah," He said slowly standing up he grabbed her by the hips and pulled her towards him. "If the strip mall is anything like the rest of the town it shouldn't be too bad."

She ran her hands up his arms, "Yeah well don't get too comfortable out there. I want you back in one piece." She said.

"Yeah well getting my ass bit isn't part of my agenda." He assured her as he leaned down and kissed her softly.

"Better not be." She said leaning her head on his shoulder. "So it just you Rick and Glenn?"

He shook his head, "Nah Whitie, Marissa, and Maggie are comin too. We want to be able to pull as much supplies as we can; we want to be able to just hunker down here as much as we can."

"I like that plan." Clara said, she didn't know if it was the pregnancy hormones or what but the idea of him leaving bothered her more than it should have. Sure there was always risk that something could happen but the feeling was different now.

Daryl sank his hand in her hair holding her against his chest before pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You ain't got nothin' to worry about." He said, "We'll be back before you know it."

She nodded, "I love you, Daryl."

He nuzzled her gently inhaling the sweet scent of her hair. "Love you too darlin, you and the little one." He said gently rubbing her belly. "Go inside where it's warm."

Clara smiled up at Daryl, "Be careful." She said before heading back into the residence hall.

* * *

Daryl parked his bike in the abandoned parking lot of the strip mall. After cutting the engine he grabbed his crossbow and waited for Rick to cut the engine on the truck. After they made a quick sweep of the outside of the building they went back to the truck. "So far we're clear." Rick told them. "We're going to start with the Wal-Mart and we'll move on to the other stores depending on what we find. Remember keep a look out for any walkers. So far we've been lucky but that doesn't mean we need to get sloppy."

"We should probably break down into groups." Glenn said. "We have a lot of ground to cover."

Daryl nodded, "I'll take Red with me we'll hit the sporting goods and baby shit."

"I have a list of pharmaceuticals from my dad so Glenn you got my back?" Maggie smiled at him when he nodded.

Rick looked over to White, "Looks like it's you and me. We'll start in the grocery and work our way over."

With that everyone grabbed a couple of carts and headed towards their intended locations. Once he was sure he and Marissa was alone, Daryl walked over to the jewelry counter and smashed the glass that incased the bridal jewelry. "What are you doing?" Marissa asked.

"You were the one who said if I wanted to call Clara my wife I was going to have to marry her." He said looking over at her. "You gonna stand there or are you going to help?"

Marissa walked over to where he was looking. "Nothing big she'd get it tangled in all that hair." She said as she scanned the rolls of rings.

"What about this one?" Daryl asked picking up one of the rings to look at it more closely. It was simple three black princess cut diamonds in the center with white diamonds incrusted in the white gold band.

Marissa took the ring from him to study it. "That's perfect." She said. "You'll need one of these too she pulled two wide silver bands from the case and handed them to him.

Daryl stared at the rings in his hand before slipping them in the breast pocket of his shirt. "Alright now let's get this shit and get home." He said.

Marissa nodded, "Let's go."

* * *

It took them a while, but finally Glenn and Maggie managed to the door to the pharmacy jimmied opened and was able to go inside. The first thing that greeted them was the smell, while they'd grown used to smelling the smell it didn't make it any easier when they first came in contact with them. Anymore it was like a warning, it let them know that they needed to be on their guard. Glenn took the lead his machete in hand he wanted to be prepared for the walker or judging by the smell…walkers that they had to deal with. As they rounded he last shelf nothing could prepare him for the sight they saw. Nailed to the wall with rail road spikes was the body of a walker and on the floor by its feet was its severed head still snapping at them. Carved into its forehead was the number '666'. On the wall written above its head in blood was a scripture.

"_And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."_


	12. Chapter 12: Truth

**Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Walking Dead, sometimes I take it out of the box and play with it for a little while, I do however own Clara Peletier, Terrance "Whitie" Mason, Kevin Archer, Sadie Carter, and Marissa Stephans.**

**Author's Note:** Thanks to everyone who's reading, reviewing, subscribing, and favoriting this story I'm glad you all are enjoying it. Just wanted to say that I'm glad that I have thoroughly creeped you all out which was my goal.

**WARNING: This story deals with Domestic Abuse on wide spectrum including psychical, emotional, and sexual. I don't mean to offend anyone so if it's something that you're not able to handle please read no further.**

* * *

**Chapter 12: Truth**

Daryl wasn't sure what to think when Glenn lead them into the back of the pharmacy where he'd found…well he had no idea how to accurately define what he'd found. "This right here is the reason religion is bullshit." He said.

"What kinda sick person would do this?" Marissa asked fighting to keep her breakfast down.

"I don't know," Rick ran his hand over his face. "Brings a lot of questions to mind though."

"We need to finish this scavange trip and head back home." Daryl said. "We'll worry about the questions later."

"How do we know whoever did this isn't still in the area?" Glenn asked, then turned to Whitie, "You seen anything like this before?"

Whitie shook his head, "Nah man this is definitely a first for me. Any ideas what it means?"

"It's Revelations 20 verse 4. I think…who ever done this was sending a message; they think that they are without sin got the right to judge those they deem evil. I think the more important question is…was this a person when they did this."

Marissa made a face, "Okay on that note…I think I'm gonna be sick." She said before running out of the room.

"Come on we need to get our things and get the hell out of here." Rick said.

Daryl looked down at the head which was still doing its best to take a bite out of one of them. Without a second thought he aimed his crossbow and fired it catching the head right between its eyes. He walked over to it and jerked the arrow out before filing out of the room after the rest of them.

* * *

Clara was sitting on one of the couches in the common room with a book spread across her lap. She'd been doing anything and everything to keep her mind off of everything that was going on…or rather the things that could be going on in the town. Call it pregnancy brain but anytime Daryl left the campus she couldn't help but mentally freak out. Maybe it had nothing to do with her pregnancy brain. Maybe it had to do with the fact that the last time he was supposed to leave, when they were on the farm, a heard of walkers came down on them running them away from the first real home they'd known since all of this had started.

Beth was grateful when she walked into the common room and was able to find Clara alone. "Do you mind if I set with you?" she asked.

Clara shook her head and moved her feet off of the end of the couch. "No, so everything's okay right?"

Beth nodded, "I just…needed to talk to you about something."

"What's that?" Clara asked closing the book.

"Well it's just that…me and Kevin have been spending time together." Beth explained tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Oh yeah?" she asked.

The younger girl nodded, "And he talks about you a lot." She explained. "I just wondered if…he was an old boyfriend."

"No not really." Clara said. "I mean when we were younger we liked each other and we went on a few dates but he ended up friendzoned."

"Friendzoned?" Beth asked.

"You know when you like someone and you date and you miss that window of opportunity to actually be in a relationship and you end up just being friends?" Clara explained.

"Oh." Beth said the tone of her voice lighter. "He's really nice and really cute. I just….well…Do you think I'm being disloyal to Jimmy? I mean he just died."

Clara shook her head, "I think Jimmy would understand and that he'd only want you to be happy. Things are different than what they used to be. I don't think anyone here would judge you if something happened between you two."

Beth hugged Clara tightly, "Thank you."

* * *

It was around mid-afternoon when the truck pulled up in front of the residence hall laden down with the things they needed. As soon as Clara made her way outside to greet them she could tell that something had happened. Still the fact that all of their number had been able to return had been comforting, she wasn't sure if she could handle loosing anyone else with the massacre at the farm. "What happened?" she asked Daryl when she was able to pull him to the side.

Daryl shook his head and ran his hand over his face. "I don't even know where to begin."

"Walkers?" she asked.

He shook his head. "It's more than just that. I ain't seen nothin' like it before."

"Daryl…tell me." She said looking up at him.

"Come on." He wrapped his arm around her waist and lead her upstairs to their room. He knew that Rick was waiting to say anything until he'd gotten a chance to talk things over with Dale and Hershel. "When we were in the Wal-Mart Glenn and Maggie found something. Clara I ain't never seen nothin' like this."

She frowned, "What was it Daryl?"

He went on to describe the scene to her. "It's got me wondering if that man had been a walker before this happened to it or…if it had been a person."

"Oh god." Clara said covering her mouth with her hand and running into the bathroom and spilling the contents of her stomach.

"Shit." Daryl cursed as he followed her. He kneeled behind her and gently pulled her hair from her face. Once she was done he helped her up and wetted a cloth with cool water and bathed her face and the back of her neck. "If I would have known it would have done that to you, I wouldn't have told you."

"I'm okay." She assured him as she rinsed her mouth out.

"Yeah well we really gotta start taken better care of you…both of you." He said.

"I'm okay." She said looking up at him and then laying her hand on her belly, "We're both okay Daryl."

"Doesn't mean I can't worry." He said covering her hand with his.


End file.
